Home > Daily links, Tues., Dec. 6: A Robin Hood tax, a bishop in the dock, and Mass with no priest

Daily links, Tues., Dec. 6: A Robin Hood tax, a bishop in the dock, and Mass with no priest

By Bryan Cones|Print |Share

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Errol Flynn, eat your heart out: You may be the best interpeter of the tights-wearing champion of Sherwood Forest, but a tax generating billions for the poor[1] in Robin Hood's honor will probably be more popular than your better-than-Costner performance. (Kevin Costner's Prince of Thieves lacked any sense of humor whatsoever. Blech.)

In a cautionary tale about ignorance of the law--or in this case, of what constitutes child pornography--Reuters has a stomach-churning account[2] of the case of Father Shawn Ratigan and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, as Bishop Robert Finn awaits the resolution of the child-endangerment charges against him. Why Finn still has a miter is beyond me.

Fed up with their own sex abuse crisis, Belgian Catholics are creating their own communities for Eucharist and baptism sans priest: "We are resisting a little bit like Gandhi,” said Johan Veys, a married former priest who performs baptisms and recruits newcomers for other tasks at Don Bosco [one of the communities]. “Our intention is not to criticize, but to live correctly. We press onward quietly without a lot of noise. It’s important to have a community where people feel at home and can find peace and inspiration." These activists are obviously not of the American variety. Some Belgian bishops are evidently in conversation with these groups, according to the New York Times[3].

And, in the category of making stuff up about the new Mass translations, Monsignor James Moroney, who worked on the translations in his role on the Vox Clara committee, says about the translation process (without any sense of irony, evidently): "Never has there been a more bottom up process for producing a translation in the history of the Church." What's really depressing is that he probably believes it. (Via PrayTell[4])